Today’s guest columnist is Prof. Michael H. LeRoy of the University of Illinois.
The Big Ten conference and its schools are drooling at the imminent prospect of signing a $1 billion-plus media deal, one certainly made more lucrative by the addition of UCLA and USC, which was itself a move to counter the SEC’s addition of Texas and Oklahoma. Both conferences are preparing for a world where only the financially strongest will thrive.
Yet while the new “Power Two” conferences crow over their newfound wealth, the SEC is arguing incongruously to a federal appeals court in Philadelphia that its athletes are merely amateurs who would bankrupt them if they were ever paid. The lawsuit, Johnson v. NCAA, is headed by a Villanova football player, Ralph (Trey) Johnson, who is seeking back pay for minimum wage and overtime while he was under the direction and control of his coaches, trainers and related athletic staff.
This case frightens even the wealthiest NCAA programs. As reported recently in Sportico, the SEC’s friend-of-the-court brief argues that college athletics “should be categorized as an extracurricular educational activity,” not employment. This mega-conference contends that “schools paying athletes a work-study wage would be cost prohibitive.”
Based on my current research project, I’ve been at work on my own amicus brief in support of college athletes, attempting to exhibit ways in which courts should rule that they are employees.
As I approached my submission deadline...
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